Amir Khan in talks for Kell Brook fight in 2020

By Boxing News - 09/21/2019 - Comments

By Kenneth Friedman: Amir Khan states that he’s in negotiations with Eddie Hearn to make his long awaited fight against Kell Brook for early 2020. Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Khan says that he and Brook will both take an interim fight later this year, before moving on to battle each other “early next year.”

It’s more important than ever for Khan and Brook (38-2, 26 KOs) to finally make their mega-fight while they still can. Both guys are coming off of less than stellar efforts, and they clearly don’t have much time left in their careers.  Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said this week that he’s going to give it one last shot at making the Khan-Brook fight for 2020.

“I will tell them: ‘Guys, spring 2020, let’s do it,'” said Hearn to skysports.com about Khan and Brook. “Hopefully we can get it over the line. I still want to make that fight. I’ll give it one more roll of the dice.”

Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) also revealed that he had tried to get a fight against WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, but “it was never meant to be.”  That’s a fight that Khan is no longer pursuing.

Khan vs. Brook can happen in 2020

“I think it’s a great idea, definitely,” said Khan to PepTalkUK when told Eddie Hearn wants to make Khan-Brook fight in early 2020. “Both of us will be fighting later this year, and then we can see if this fight between me and Kell can happen early next year. We’re both about the same age, and it’s a fight that we’ve been trying to make for a very long time, so I think it’s getting very close to it right now,” said Khan.

Who would have thought that Khan would finally show interest in making the Brook fight? But when you’ve got two fighters that are nearing the end of their careers, this is what you see. Khan looks like he really wants the Brook fight. There will be a skeptical boxing fans in hearing news from Khan about negotiations supposedly taking place between him and Brook, given that he’s not come through for the fans to make this fight a reality, Brook has been chasing the Khan clash for the last 10 years without luck.

The Brook fight will be massive says Khan

“I’ve worked with Eddie Hearn in some of my previous fights, and I think working with him for this fight with Kell Brook will be massive,” said Khan. “At the end of this year, we’ll both be fighting. If it’s going to happen, it’ll be early next year. We’re in talks with Eddie and Kell’s team, so hopefully we an make that fight happen. So yeah, it’s a fight that the public wants, and it’s a massive fight in Britain. So let’s make it happen,” said Khan.

Khan may have missed the boat by waiting so long to make the match against Brook. It’ll be interesting to see if the UK boxing public still wants to see Khan and Brook fight each other. The perception is that the fans view Khan and Brook as two fighters on the decline, and no longer relevant at 147 in their respective careers. However, it’s quite possible that Khan-Brook could attract a great deal of interest if they promote the clash in a manner that gets the casual boxing fans on board.

Khan vs. Brook past it’s sell by date?

It might be too late in the game for Khan-Brook to be sold to the fans. The ideal time for the Khan-Brook fight to have been made was back in 2011, when both fighters are winning impressively. If the fight does get made between them in 2020, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn will want to put it on Sky Box Office in the UK. That means boxing fans will need to pay to see the fight. Will the fans be willing to pay to see two old timers fight it out? It’s possible. If Hearn can work his promotional magic, he could get the British fans to want to pay to see Khan fight it out with Brook for old times sake.

For example, look at the attention that is being focused on the Youtubers celebrity match between KSI and Logan Paul. These guys aren’t even boxers. It’s just a celebrity match, and it’s crazy to imagine why anyone would want to see something like this. If those two can attract millions of casual boxing fans in their fight, then perhaps Khan vs. Brook can rope fans in? It’s a different situation though. The fans that follow KSI and Logan Paul aren’t boxing fans.

Their followers are teenagers that like to watch them talk about stuff on Youtube. It’s a different situation with Khan and Brook. It’ll be up to Matchroom to try and promote the Khan-Brook fight as best as they can, and see if they can get the UK fans caught up. As far as the U.S goes, Khan vs. Brook won’t excite the American boxing fans. Neither of them are on the radar screen with the U.S fans, as they don’t fight often enough in the country.

Khan tried unsuccessfully to make Pacquiao fight

“It’s a massive fight. [Manny] Pacquiao is a big name in boxing,” said Khan when asked if he’s interested in a fight with Pacquiao. “I’ve been training partners with him for a very long time at the Wildcard Gym in LA. We know each other quite well, and have a friendship, but sometimes you put friendship to the side. I would love that fight.

I think it would be brilliant for me. Styles make fights, and I think it would be an electric fight with speed, power, movement, and everything in it. We got close to getting it done. Contracts were going back and forth, but it was never meant to be for it to happen. So, I’ve got to look at other options I have out there, and one of them is Kell Brook, and there might be a few other names. We’ll take it from there,” said Khan.

Khan really pushed hard for the Pacquiao fight for a number of years, but it’s never happened. The two used to spar with each other many years ago, but they never fought. Khan is the one that has tried to make the Pacquiao fight. What was working against the match taking place was Pacquiao’s previous promoter Bob Arum having his own guys that he wanted to match him again. So instead of Arum putting Pacquiao in with Khan, he matched him against Top Rank fighters. When Arum did put Pacquiao in with non-Top Rank guys, it was against popular fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Fans will watch Khan-Brook

If Hearn puts the Khan vs. Brook fight on regular Sky Sports, many boxing fans will tune in to see them go at it. At this point it’s highly unlikely that millions of people will agree to open up their pocketbooks to pay to watch Khan-Brook on Sky Sports. It’s too late in the game for fans to want to pay to see a glorified old timers fight between to arguably washed up fighters. Brook hasn’t fought since December 2018 in a poor performance against junior middleweight Michael Zerafa. Khan lost his last fight by 6th round stoppage to WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford last April on ESPN PPV. That was not a great effort from Khan.